Neil Woodford reveals new fund’s top 10 stock picks

Former Invesco Perpetual star fund manager Neil Woodford has revealed the top 10 holdings in his new fund with his old picks AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline both present.

Woodford Investment Management’s CF Woodford Equity Income fund attracted £1.6bn during its two-week offer period last month and began trading on 19 June.

While the fund group has said it will publish the fund’s entire portfolio online so investors can see where their money is invested, this will not be available until mid-July. Until then the asset manager has revealed the top 10 holdings in the fund.

Woodford (pictured) is still pessimistic in terms of his economic views but said there were a number of undervalued assets in the markets that he plans to exploit.

Woodford said the fund has ‘taken off and…gained a lot of height, but we are not yet at cruising altitude’.

He said the fund will ‘continue to evolve’ and he had been careful to build a portfolio that ‘avoids sectors that I believe are vulnerable to a faltering global economy’.

‘There is significant emphasis on the tobacco and pharmaceutical sectors,’ he said. ‘These two sectors are resilient to falling demand, have strong balance sheets and attractive valuations.’

The top 10 stocks include:

AstraZeneca 8.30%

GlaxoSmithKline 7.11%

British American Tobacco 6.20%

BT 6.02%

Imperial Tobacco 5.31%

Roche 3.90%

Imperial Innovations 3.60%

Reynolds American 3.55%

Rolls-Royce 3.47%

Capita 3.36%

The funds closely mimic those held in the Invesco Perpetual Income fund and the Invesco Perpetual High Income fund, which Woodford ran alongside the Edinburgh Investment Trust.

The top five holdings in the Invesco income fund are GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and BAE Systems. The top five holdings in the high income fund are GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Roche.

Woodford said: ‘My cautious view on the global economy hasn’t changed. The liquidity flows that have supported asset prices over the past five years are going into reverse, while growth in many parts of the world is being downgraded.

‘The global economy and financial markets both face a tricky time over the next few years, but there are still many undervalued assets in equity markets and it is these opportunities that the fund is seeking to exploit.’